. but this morning, there are signs of some movement in negotiations.presidentobamaandhousespeakerjohnboehner did speak by phone last night. that conversation came after the president offered to reduce his initial request for $1.6 trillion in new revenue to $1.4 trillion but is reportedly not backing down on raising taxes for the top 2%. boehner's spokesman said republicans are still seeking further concessions on spending cuts. >>> well, there are some new details this morning on that london nurse who took her own life after passing through a prank call at the hospital that was treating kate middleton for extreme morning sickness. jacintha saldanha's family reveals that she left a suicide note, though they haven't released details of what that note said. earlier this week, the two deejays who made the call said the tragedy has left them shattered, gutted and heartbroken. >>> now, here's your first look at this morning's "dish of scrambled politics." mitt romney wasn't the only one caught off guard last night. it is reported the powerful conservative koch brothers are postponing a gathering s

. >>reporter: you get a sense thatpresidentobamaandspeakerboehnerget along fine but today boehner hammered the president essentially making the point that if he got the tax increases he wants, we would still face trillion dollar deficits. here is more from speaker boehner on cutting spending. >> the president doesn't agree with our approach, he has an obligation to put forward a plan that can pass both chambers of the congress. right now the american people have to be scratching their heads and wondering when the president will get serious. >>reporter: you hear frustration from the speaker of the house and we hear frustration from owe lawmakers. the negotiations are between just the president and the speaker and folks are walking around capitol hill not sure what is going on in the private talks. >>shepard: no one seems sure of anything in that entire city but democrats are not optimistic, either. >>reporter: the calendar, we have checked, and done some reporting on our own, when a deal needs to be struck and in the next 48 hours we have to get something done when you consider the

in portland. thanks, jay. >>> turning now to politics and the fiscal cliff negotiation.presidentobamaandspeaker boehner are keeping an open dialogue. speaking on the phone yesterday after trading secret proposals to avoid the year-end deadline. with few details revealed, officials say the president lowered his initial asking price on tax cuts to $1.4 trillion. president boehner took his displeasure to the house floor. >> we're still waiting for the white house to identify what spending cuts the president is willing to make as part of the balanced approach that he promised the american people. where are the president's spending cuts? the longer the white house slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff. >> president obama responded, showing republicans where they could find the details. >> it's not a mystery. we've seen this before. this is the document that contains the specific spending cuts. the speaker of the house sent us a proposal that was two pages long that included one sentence on revenue. the proposal here includes, i believe from pages 17 to

.presidentobamaandspeakerboehner.thank you. nobody else will be in the room. with 24 days before a year-end deadline, "the new york times" says boehner made the request to clear the negotiation room going forward, leaving it up to himself and the president to reach a deal to avoid automatic tax hikes and deep spending cuts. and while the two men may be negotiating privately, yesterday the president took his mess dwrooj the public, visiting a local virginia family as a part of his social media campaign. while sitting around the kitchen table, he told the family he felt optimistic. >> the message that i think we all want to send to members of congress is this is a solvable problem. the senate has already passed a bill that would make sure the middle class taxes do not go up next year by a single dime. just to be clear, i'm not going to sign any package that somehow prevents the top rate from going up for folks at the top 2%, but i do remain optimistic that we can get something done that is good for families like this one and that is good for the american economy. >> an added wrinkle to th

to get the two of you in a room to hash this out.>>obama: willspeakerboehnerand i speak frequently. >> when will the two of you sit down in a room. >> obama: i don't think the issue right now has to do with sitting in a room. >> jennifer: he's totally right by that, by the way. president obama reiterated that he's on board with entitlement reform and cuts but the republicans have to budge on tax rates for the wealthy. harry reid had this for the republicans. >> i sympathize sympathize with john boehner. the tea party has a firm grip on the republican party. we are not going to twist ourselves into contortions to please a vocal minority of the tea party. >> jennifer: that's fascinating a new approach for harry reid feeling sorry for john boehner. i'm not sure how john boehner feels about that. with me is karl frisch in washington and donny welcome back inside "the war room"." >> it's a party. >> jennifer: yeah, all good stuff. karl i'll start with you. how should democrats be handling this tea party revolt? should they do more to assist speaker boehner? >> we should be throwing gas

the fiscal cliff taking on a new turn atpresidentobamameetswith the house ofrepresentativesspeakerboehnerat the white house. we have a live report. our political insiders are here, too. >>heather: a turn for the worse for the most bitter enemy, chavez, headed to cuba for medical treatment. we have the latest on his condition. >> a dallas cowboy player appearing in a court of laugh after a deadly crash killed his team may, josh brent could face up to 20 years behind bars. and now, live in allege in which in arlington, next. >> quiet this afternoon. the cowboys play add game this afternoon in ohio against cincinnati. just recently, they won that game. we will show you a powerful picture that came out of ohio today. jerry brown's jersey laid out on the bench there. a moment of silence, also. 24-year-old josh brent had a bond hearing in texas this morning. a judge set the bail at $500,000. the attorney is arguing that is too high. he is petitioning to have that bond reduced so it is unclear when he will get out of jail. the police say it was late friday night and early saturday morni

important signstoday.speaker, housespeakerjohnboehner met withpresidentobamaatthe white house today. we don't know how long they met or exactly what they talked about, but the white house says lines of communication are open and face-to-face meeting is on important. at the same time republicans say they will accept the demands for higher taxes on the wealthy if it goes along with spending cuts entitlements like medicare and social security. listen.... >> a lot of people are putting forth a theory. i think it has merit where you give the president 2% increase he is talking about on the top 2 percent. i am beginning to believe that is the best route for us to take. >> reporter: many other republicans, of course, standing firm against any tax increase. they could give the speaker a hard time if he tries to pass the kind of legislation corker was talking about there. >> and how are the democrats reacting to accept the higher tax rates? >> reporter: they are happy to see movement was made toward the president's position but speaker boehner has not embraced the it. it could be what they t

forthespeakertosay.presidentobamaoutlinedvery specific cuts in his proposal to the republicans. republicans have not offered anything specific in cuts whatsoever. of course, nothing specific in revenue whatsoever. all generalizations. the republicans want more spending cuts. tell us what you want. that is what i say to them. we cannot read their minds. we are not going to make a proposal for them. republicans know perfectly well that democrats are willing to make tough choices on these issues, if they understand, which i hoped they do by now, we are going to look out for the middle class first. the only thing standing in the way of an agreement is republicans, their insistence on holding tax cuts for middle- class families hostage to bring on the fiscal cliff. there is a lot of bluster coming from republicans, but that is crumbling quickly. every day, we read about more republicans breaking ranks, calling out the speaker to allow tax rates to rise on the wealthiest. yesterday, it was parker and coburn. today, florida governor haley barbour. he said, "i would take raising rates

. interesting.presidentobamaandspeakerboehner.nobody else. with 24 days before a year-end deadline, "the new york times" says boehner made the request to clear the negotiation room going forward, leaving it up to himself and the president to reach a deal to avoid automatic tax hikes and deep spending cuts. and while the two men may be negotiating privately, yesterday the president took his message to the public, visiting a local virginia family as a part of his my2k social media campaign, sitting around the kitchen table. he told the family he was optimistic. >> the message that i think we all want to send to members of congress is, this is a solvable problem. the senate has already passed a bill that would make sure the middle-class taxes don't go up next year by a single dime. just to be clear, i'm not going to sign any package that somehow prevents the top rate from going up for folks at the top 2%. but i do remain optimistic that we can get something done that is good for families like this one and that is good for the american economy. >> what great news, i think. don't you think so

obamaandhousespeakerjohnboehner brokering a deal. very much the way you saw they attempted to do during the debt ceiling debacle last year. it simplifies the problem of less cooks in the kitchen. then they will have to sell it. president obama would have to bring in democrats. john boehner would have to bring in his republicans and make sure everyone is on board. this comes on the heels of what has really been radio silence between the white house and house republicans. we found out yesterday, we were told by both sides that the lines of communication are back open on the staff level. i will tell you that's kind of fun funny to anyone here covering all this because normally the lines of communication are always open, but that was news yesterday. >> sad thing. it's all relative. let me ask you about what seemed to be a crazy thing that senator mitch mcconnell was trying to do that ended up backfiring on him pretty badly. >> reporter: some theatrics. the debt ceiling, it's set to be hit in january or february. that's complicating the fiscal cliff discussions. mitch mcconnell yester

insurance. >>>thespeakerjohnboehner offers a new plan to cut spending by demanding thatpresidentobamacomeup with john boehner's plan to cut spending. what those cuts are, no one is sure. >> now critics say the speaker is just asking democrats to put specifics into the republican proposal, but i say that's kind of fun. it makes the budget into a giant mad lib. for instance, we agree to cut $10 bazillion from the program that brings ukuleles to the sticky poor. toilet boobs. >> we will play our very own game of mad libs when house democratic whip steny hoyer joins us live just ahead on "now." to the best vacation spot on earth. (all) the gulf! it doesn't matter which of our great states folks visit. mississippi, alabama, louisiana or florida, they're gonna love it. shaul, your alabama hospitality is incredible. thanks, karen. love your mississippi outdoors. i vote for your florida beaches, dawn. bill, this louisiana seafood is delicious. we're having such a great year on the gulf, we've decided to put aside our rivalry. now is the perfect time to visit anyone of our states. the beache

me. >> john boehner has sentpresidentobamaacounterour. a spokesman forhousespeakerboehnerdeclined to share details of the offer but said the proposal would solve our looming debt crisis and create american jobs. we're still waiting for the white house to identify what spending cuts the white house will make and the longer the white house slow walk this is policy the close we get to fiscal cliff. we'll hear what senate leaders had to say today they spoke for 15 minutes at the capitol. >> it's time to see if the president is willing to make any cuts at all and whether he's willing to lead his party in making an agreement with us. the senate democrats have ruled out any spend regular duckses at all. if you look at the problem we have, it's overwhelmingly that we spend too much, we spent our time and you all have written about it because so much of the discussion has been about it, talking about increasing taxes on the top two rates. even if you did that it would provide enough money to run the government for eight days. clearly that doesn't have anything to do with getting

serious about solving this problem. >> butpresidentobamasaysjohn boehner's presence is not the solution, it's the problem. >> the holdup right now is that speaker boehner took a position, you think the day after the campaign, that said, we're willing to bring in revenue, but we're not willing to increase rates. and i've just explained to you why we don't think that works. >> senate majority leader harry reid has also called republicans out for sabotaging the democratic process. now, putting this all into context, he tweeted out today, harry reid did, "i share the frustration of americans lamenting the lack of progress in negotiations to avoid a massive tax increase on middle class families. but for insight into why negotiations have been tough, consider the failure of the disabilities treaty at the hands of the tea party. those are the same republicans with whom democrats are supposed to find agreement to protect middle class families from a january 1st tax increase?" who could say it better? democrats are not being unreasonable here whatsoever. they are the party of

thatyesterday.speakerboehnerandpresidentobamaspokeyesterday for the first time in a week. for the first time, we're actually getting some discussions. of course, this doesn't necessarily mean they will solve them tonight. but they are talking about it. >> neil: rich, if you could have played along with the theme. you mentioned they spoke yesterday. it argued we respond immediately to the top of my show, superhero proposals. >> the new lines of communication are now open because of the top of the show and the news came out during your show. >> neil: good answer. sandra, in all seriousness, now they have to bring what appear to be significant gap. time wasting. >> time is wasting. who shocks me is the market is floating higher despite at all. >> neil: what if we don't get a deal? >> the market want to deal because they want to move on. they don't like the urn certainty. the cliche, the markets that it uncertainty. we heard that about the election, too. stocks went nowhere for a while. even is in a wait and see mode. payment have done things to alter taxes. the business and the market comm

for high-income individuals. >> there is big news tonight out of washingtonwherespeakerjohnboehner and obama are talking. this is actually not nothing, not in this town. early last week they really weren't talking, and neither were their staffs. progress on what to do about all those expiring tax cuts and schedule spending cuts and that possible recession congress might create, totally stalled. but now today they are talking, and their staffs are talking, and they're even exchanging paper, real paper. news leaked today that in the last few days, there have been new offers and new counteroffers in the negotiations. but they sound, to be honest, not that different from the old offers. reports that mr. obama has gone from $1.6 trillion in taxes to $1.4 trillion but hasn't budged much on entitlements. mr. boehner really hasn't moved on taxes at all. he is still i'm told at $800 billion, although details on his offer are sparse. earlier today i asked michael steele, john boehner's press secretary for details on the, quote, deal. i was writing quickly and meant to say offer, but i wrote

.speakerboehnersays he is waiting onpresidentobamatooutline spending cuts. this is kind of a strange thing for the speaker to say. president obama outlined specific cuts in his proposal to the republicans. republicans have not offered anything specific in cuts whatsoever. and nothing specific in revenue whatsoever. all generalizations. republicans want more spending cuts. tell us what you want, we say to them. we cannot read their minds. we will not make a proposal for them. they know that we are willing to make tough choices on these issues. i hope they understand by now that we will look out for the middle class first. illinois standing in the way of an agreement is republicans. -- the only thing standing in the way of an agreement is republicans. there is a lot of bluster coming from the republicans about society kremlin quickly. every day -- crumbling quickly. they are calling on the speaker to let tax rates rise. yesterday it was coburn. today was another. he said he would take raising rates are the top 2 bracket -- and went on with other things he wanted. he wants the rates to

the country needs. today we heardpresidentobama's responseto the proposal thathousespeakerjohnboehner put on the table yesterday. >> the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance. >> of out of balance. kind of similar to what republicans said last week when the president sent over his terms. so now what? will they sit down and talk it through? well, not according to at least one senior republican aide who told cnn today, no conversations today, no e-mails, tweets, carrier pigeons. as for boehner and obama, they actually did see each other in person at the white house holiday party last night in black tie. while other lawmakers waited in line to get the photo with the president, multiple sources from both sides of the aisle tell cnn that boehner wasn't among them. so much for holiday cheer. we have this picture. we're wait fworg the day there's a fiscal cliff. there wasn't total silence in washington today. senate majority leader harry reid spoke up. but in his case, in the form of a swipe. >> i sympathyize with john boehner. the key party has a firm grip on the republican p

obamahasbeen clear about it all along. >> unfortunately,thespeaker's proposalright now is still out of balance. you know, he talks, for example, about $800 billion worth of revenues, but he says he's going to do that by lowering rates. and when you look at the pamath it doesn't work. >> you see, if we lower these rates, then the job creators will go out there end and all this money to hire a bunch of people, and that's going to contribute more to the tax base. and gosh, we're just going to take care of all of our problems. we have tried this stuff, and it didn't work. when leaders mcconnell and boehner feed the base, it makes it harder for them to come around and later on lead their members towards a sane deal with the president of the united states and democrats who, by the way, won the election. let's bring in former virginia congressman, tom perriello, now the president and ceo of the center for american progress action fund. tom, good to have you with us tonight. >> always good to be here. >> you bet. have republican leaders boxed themselves in by catering to this fringe element

betweenspeakerjohnboehnerandpresidentobamatoday.with just 25 days to go, let's keep tabs on where we stand. reports of a conservative backlash against speaker boehner simply not true. he has the solid support of his leadership and the rank and file. but there is concern among some in the gop that they are at risk of becoming the party for rich people while president obama and democrats stake their claim on the middle class. and my tax rate flexibility with higher -- here's what the president said earlier today. >> i'm not going to sign any package that somehow prevent prevents the top rate from going up for folks at the top 2%. but i do remain optimistic that we can get something done that is good for families like this one and that is good for the american economy. >> we look back republican senator rand paul from the state of kentucky. senator paul, welcome, as always. i want to ask you about the fiscal cliff, the state of play. there's revenues on the table. there's tax rate increases on the table. i don't know if there's spending on the table. what's your thinking prigt now? >

payments. >>> now to the really big financial story, the fiscal cliff.housespeakerjohnboehner says president obama has wasted another week by not making a real proposal. meanwhile, republicans are divided and senator rand paul on this show last night may have made the most constructive proposal of all. >> i'm happy not to filibuster it. i will announce tonight on your show i will work with harry reid to let him pass his big old tax hike with a simple majority if that's what harry reid wants. then they will be the party of high taxes and they can own it. >> all right. without that kind of republican strategic retreat, the december 31st deadline is not likely to be met. in today's jobs report it was positive and it beat the street and stocks went up. how do we move 150,000 jobs per month up to 300,000 which would be a real recovery? first up breaking news out of the supreme court this afternoon, the nation's highest court agreed to take up the explosive issue of same-sex marriage, agreeing to hear challenges to the federal defense of marriage act and california's proposition 8. nbc's

the presidentandspeakerhavetaken no concrete steps to resolvthe so-alled fiscal cliff. president obama remains insistent that republicans yields to his ultimatum thahe be allowed to raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year. republicans for their part insist that the president gets serious about cutting spending in order to reducetrillion dollar deficits and a natonal debt that is nw mind-boggling league not -- monotonous. house minority leader disagrees vehemently with the speaker on how to reduce deficits and debt. today she offered a paradoxical statement on scal policy that wouldake both casey stieel and yogi berra proud. the nation now just 24 days away from $600 billion of spending cuts and tax increases that will automatically kicked in. and pelosi has some wise words for washington. please listen terror. >> this is a mment of truth. the clock is ticking. christmas is coming. the goose is getting fat. in many homes across america it is very, very lean times. you cannot cut your way to deficit reduction. lou: that's right. pelosi says we cannot get ou

the dilemmathespeakerhas,he knows revenues has to go up. he knowspresidentobamawonthe race. but the people he represents in the republican conference, they won and their platform was lowering taxes. he's got to persuade people who just a month ago said they wouldn't raise taxes to vote to raise taxes. that's a tough order. and then secondly, he's uping the ante on medicare by essentially going back to the ryan-style proposal of benefit cuts. and then third, the president wants to have the debt ceiling resolved or at least temporarily resolved as part of any agreement and the republicans and mr. boehner want to agree to that. so it argues that it may be much easier for mr. boehner to have a vote on the taxes come up in the first week of january than the republicans are voting to lower taxes because the state of the law will be at the clinton rates so then they don't have to deal with the norquist pledge. it's not the way we should do it but it's the way it will get done. host: a report says republicans have a fallback plan. if the two sides can't come to an agreement, possib

of moving parts today, senator, in thecapitol.speakerboehnercoming out at 11:00 a.m. saying no progress to talk about. we don't know if nancy pelosi will be speaking later on today at noon. we know president obama will be speaking. does this misstep that we were just talking about, does it hurt? is this just mcconnell really just trying to get his say into this process? >> you know, richard, i don't think so. i actually think senator mcconnell's proposal was a pretty good one regardless of who is president. president obama or then governor romney. the notion that this country every 12, 14 month is going to have this hostage taking by congress over a debt ceiling is not a way to run, you know, the largest enterprise in the world, the united states government. there's nothing in the constitution that talks about a debt ceiling. this has become kind of in the past a pro forma process that has now turned into a financial armageddon each time it comes about and i do think granting the president these additional rights and then allowing congress with a two-thirds vote to say, hold on here, th

except to say that it does include those components, and as you know,presidentobamawasinitially asking for about twice the amount in new revenues that house speaker john boehner was saying he could deliver. the house speaker getting some push back from members of his own caucus for offering up $800 billion in new revenues. of course, he wanted to achieve that by rolling back tax breaks. president obama wants rates to go up on the wealthiest americans. there is no sign that that impasse has been broken at this point. those are still one of the big issues that likely needs to be worked out. but, again, what we do have it seems at this point, at this hour, is a proposal and a counterproposal coming from the hill. martin? >> thank you, kristin. congressman courtney, finally and briefly if i can put this to you, is it possible they're getting closer but actually they don't want to reveal that they've reached a closer agreement because it will give too much time for blood-letting? >> it's possible because, again, just remember, people are just flying into town tonight, and so the time

on the fiscal close. ♪ ♪gerri:speakerjohnbarrett today calling up thehite house ying their wasting time and president obama is bringing our economy right to t edge. >> ford is your we offered a serious proposal basedon testimony of friends that clinton's former chief of staff. since then there has been no counteroffer from the white house. instead, reports indicate that the president has adopted a deliberate strategy to a slow walk our economy right to the edge of the fiscal cliff. gerri: earlier i asked republican senator richard shelby of alabama for his take on the comments from boehner. >> i believe that speaker boehner is on the right track. thpresident has not come uptown now, been deeply involved, that we know about , in any of these offers are counteroffers. dealers said he has been campaigning to meet. but he has to get involved if he wants to avoid the fiscal cliff. i think that the speaker has indicated that he will try to engage in, try to meet him and y to avoid the fiscal cleft that the presiient is going to continue to say it is my way orr the highway, that is another gam

thespeakerofthe house john boehner is talking about. he offeredpresidentobama, we'llclose the tax loop holes. is that what he's talking about? >> that's what he's talking about . they will save a lot of money. but when we hear information like this, it is tough for people to get perspective and understand what is going to take place . we hear head leans and think close tax loop holes and they are confusing. but the american people needs to know, if loop holes will close. it is not just google. it is amazon and general electric. all of these companies use the loop holes because they are judged on profitability. we'll continue to see this unless we change. >> gretchen: these universitis and companis and have given to different administrations. this is the obama 2012 campaign. university of the california a million. microsoft 761,000 . google 737,000. et cetera and what do they get in return, ed, for giving that money. >> they usually get to bring attention to this andcontinue to do it in a vacume. the president could say . we have a problem. google avoided paying taxs and we need to chan

withthespeakerofthe house on that? >> unfortunately, wolf, the policies ofpresidentobamahavealready taken us over the cliff. if you meet with businesses like i do all the time, they've already paired back plans for next year anticipating what's going to happen. we can fix this christmas eve if we want, but we've already hurt the economy and job growth. >> are you with boehner? >> i'm not with boehner. this government doesn't need anymore money. this country needs less government. we're going to have historic levels of revenue to the government this year. >> everyone's taxes are going up at the end of the year if there's no deal. >> we have already offered to extend current tax rates. that's what we should have done six months ago until we could come to some agreement, some compromise on tax reform. >> when you say compromise, where are you ready to compromise as far as taxes are concerned? >> how we go about tax reform, there's a lot of room to work together to lower the rates. >> give me an example? >> i'm not sure where the democrats are because they have not offered a plan. >> their pl

page.presidentobamarejectedthe latest proposal from john boehner. the president and the democrats are focused on revenue and they are determined to make sure that the top tax rates go up. >> unfortunately, the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance. he talks, for example, about $800 billion worth of revenues, but he says he's going to do that by lowering rates. when you look at the math, it doesn't work. >> harry reid wasted no time explaining why the boehner proposal is not serious. >> math. you can't get from here to there unless you raise the rates. that's why romney couldn't explain it during the presidential election. no one can explain it because you can't do it. >> jay carney says the speaker's plans raises more questions than answers. >> we don't know who pays. we don't know what we're talking about in terms of actual legislation to increase revenues. it's magic beans and fairy dust. >> john boehner's heavy-handed approach to leadership, boehner and the republican steering committee kicked four republican congressmen out of their committee seats for voting ag

, it is a very, very dangerous ne. lou: it is clear,thespeakermadea clear, he believes that is precisely what the president wants to do and will do. as you say, it is stunning to watch the principal economic financial fiures in the obama administration be leading a political negotiation rather than, if yo will, minding over an economy filled with 23 million people unemployed all sorts of challenges at every corner frm and he is now politician. it is stunning. i want to get your comments, if i made, on something thatnancy pelosi said today, which reported at the top of this broadcast. you cannot cut your way to deficit reduction. i am quoting her directly. let's try that again because you probably did not believe your years. you cannot get away to deficit reduction. your reaction? i'm speech was, quite frankly. i mean, if that -- if she believes that be true, then she believes he can grow your y out of problems and there is no growth rate that is going to match the 22% projected increase in insurance subsidies under obamacare. or she believes she can taxer way out, and there is no way our eco

Search Results 0 to 49 of about 51 (some duplicates have been removed)